“What I think,” Lila said, hands on her hips, “is that you should always put your best foot forward. Especially when you’re in a service industry. And an amateur repair makes you look like you don’t care. It’s like a business card with a typo.” Lila looked up as thunder rumbled in the distance. “We’re going to need umbrellas.”

“No worries,” Emily said as she walked around to the back of her car and crouched within arm’s length of the repair. “I’ve got umbrellas in the trunk.” Of course she knew where the car had been damaged, but would she have noticed if she didn’t? Probably not. Which, in a nutshell, was the difference between Emily and her mother. That was the reason Lila had been so good at her job, and the whole reason Emily wanted her to have a look at Mr. Murphy’s collection.

“You’re right,” Emily said. “I should get my car washed more often. And it is definitely going to rain.” She checked her watch. “We should get going soon. We need to be at the storage place in thirty minutes.”

While Emily drove, her mother tsked her way through the pictures of the storage unit that Emily had on her cell phone. “This is going to be painful. The condition of those books.” She shook her head. “And what about those tubes?”

“That one I talked to you about? It’s in the back.” Emily pointed over her shoulder. “See what you think.”

Lila undid her seat belt, turned in her seat, and reached for the tube. She settled back and examined the label. “I should probably be wearing gloves.”

“In the backseat, too. In the bag that’s on the floor.”

Lila hauled the bag forward, rummaged around. “What’s this?” she asked, showing Emily the baby-blue stun gun.

“It’s a stun gun. Frank makes me carry it for self-defense.”

“Makes you?”

“Figure of speech.”

“I should hope so. I didn’t raise you to . . .” Her voice died out as Lila examined the stun gun. “Looks dead to me. If you’re going to carry one, you should at least keep it charged.”

How did she even know? “Please just put it back in the bag,” Emily said. She needed her mother, but she could only defend herself about so many things.

Thankfully, Lila dropped the subject. She rummaged around some more in Emily’s gear bag until she found a pair of latex gloves. She put them on, then popped the plastic lid off one end of the tube. Peered into the tube, then upended it. The map slid out.

Lila gently flattened the paper across her lap. “New France, New Scotland, Golfe of Canada.” She whispered the words like an incantation as she ran gloved fingertips over the compass and a windblown Neptune with his trident that occupied the lower corner.

“Do you think it’s original?” Emily asked.